Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Clemens to the Astros

Thank goodness that Roger Clemens signed with the Astros today officially! I am an Astros fan of sorts (I lived in Houston for 6 years and it's a Texas team) but I'm mostly a Rangers fan. I'm mostly happy because he's been sitting on the bench of my fantasy baseball team and now he's going to start working for me instead of just taking up a valuable roster spot!

I'll blog more about the Dominican Republic and other topics later. I just don't have much time since getting back from our trip and trying to resume normalcy!

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Dominican Republic here we come!!

That's right, we'll be in the Dominican before the sun sets again! We've been frantically getting ready for this trip and it's been a challenging week with sickness and mega-work for both my wife and I. The perfect time for a vacation!

We are going because an awesome member of our family is getting married there. She's from Canada so we don't blame her for wanting to be married barefoot on a beach! All of our kids are in the wedding and we wouldn't miss it for the world.

So, I won't blog again for a week or more but I'll be sure to share my experiences when we get back.

Blessings for Awesome Parents

My good buddy from college just had a big party for his folks. They were turning 60 around the same time and their children all got together to honor them in a special way. We mingled with their parents friends (some drove from south Texas and elsewhere to be there) and my buddy and his sisters showed some pictures and had a toast. During the course of the evening, they did something that not many children do for their parents anymore -- they honored and blessed them! My friends parents developed a relationship with me and loved and cared for my wife and family. Their caring actions to "some friend of their son" was not unprecedented looking around the room at those that they have touched in a special way over the years.

I asked them to send me the text of the key piece of their presentation to their parents that meant the most to me. I can only hope that some day our children have reason to bless and honor us in a similar fashion. Read and enjoy. I intend to read this often and use it to "begin with the end in mind" as I parent our kids and look to the future.

"Our parents lived what they taught, setting a great example for us. They were involved in our lives, but gave us room to be ourselves. They provided boundaries, helping us learn to set our own. They checked out who our friends were and intervened when they didn’t like what they saw. Most of all, they did all these things to point us to Jesus and keep us on the straight and narrow path. It was often hard, and we would stray a few steps – but they would stop us before we went too far – and lovingly – yet firmly guide us back. As a parent now, I see how hard it is to let your child face the world without you (and I’m just talking about pre-school). What better way to prepare them for the inevitable pain and disappointment of the world than to show them the only ONE who will always face it with them.

Thank you for:
· Loving us
· Disciplining us
· Leading us, teaching us to follow and teaching us how to lead
· Providing for our needs…and our wants – often at your own sacrifice
· Teaching us about life, but most importantly about God and Salvation
· Guiding us to make wise choices and giving us room to do so
· Letting us learn from making bad ones too
· Making us go to church every Sunday – and stay awake and not talk during the service
· Choosing to send three kids to church camp and choir tour every summer, even though it meant not getting to go places you wanted to go.
· Loving our friends
· Knowing who our friends were (and their parents too)
· Giving us room to grow, but not letting us go too far
· Giving us rules and boundaries and letting us know when we crossed them
· Letting us have fun but also learn when to be serious too
· Teaching us what God says in the bible especially how much He loves us
· Living out what you were teaching
· For believing you were responsible to God for how you raised us – which affected everything you did, said, read and watched on TV.

And thank you for engaging in the one thing you can do for us no matter where you are or what you are doing – praying for us. Even in the last few weeks, we have seen God answer the prayer requests mom has shared with her BSF ladies. Most of all, we thank you for the foundation you provided us from God’s word – that has shaped who we are today."

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

The next American Idol?

I'm really frustrated! My favorite two Idol contestants have been eliminated in consecutive weeks -- Paris then Chris!

I really thought that Chris had a great chance to win it all (forget the fact that we share a name, he is great). Last night we voted for Chris and Elliott and decided to let the rest of the country decide between Katherine and Taylor. We really like Taylor but just think that he is out of his league at this point in the competition. Katherine has a great voice but she's been "off" for three weeks in a row now -- she just can't compete at this level either. Elliott has a great voice and has done very well lately. He is stepping up at the right time and showing that he can do this!

Anyway, I hope that Katherine gets eliminated next week then Elliott wins over Taylor in the Finals. My next American Idol is Elliott!

Thursday, May 04, 2006

What my kids have taught me . . . (part 2)

* It's not What you do -- love is about Who you are and Whose you are! Love is not performance-based! I had never thought about it before we had kids, but we learned early on (thankfully!) to make discipline about their behavior only. "You are not bad, your behavior is bad." It is important for us to instill in them that our love is not based on their behavior since they can't do anything that would make us stop loving them. Instead our love is based on Who they are and Whose they are -- they are MY KIDS and I love 'em! God is the same way. I am thankful that he has infinite patience with my failures and is always willing to run to me when I return to him since His love is not about What I do but about Who I am (the man that He created) and about Whose I am (His child).

* Prayer should be our first resort not our last resort (God cares about every small detail). One time when Collin was a baby we were having a very difficult time feeding him. He was crying and fussy and just refused to eat. We tried everything under the sun! We knew that he was hungry and it was time for him to go to sleep for the night. It was either feed him now and have a good night or put him down and be up half the night starting this whole cycle over again. Finally, there was nothing left for us to do and we just sat there and prayed. It was one of those desperation prayers. You know the kind . . . GOD PLEASE! Within five minutes, Collin had calmed down and was eating well. We got him to sleep and we all slept through the night. This was just one more example of how we put off praying and use it as a last resort. God wants us to go to Him with all of our needs and make Him an integral part of our life. We shouldn't just include Him when all else has failed.

Continue to Part 3
Return to Part 1

The Amazing Race for the next American Idol

Okay, I know . . . we are suckered into these reality TV shows! The Amazing Race is great to see all of the cool places that they go and the awesome things that they get to do. We also like rooting for our favorite teams and against our least favorite teams. We started watching American Idol when the kids started dancing around to the music (one of the shows that we don't mind the kids watching with us) and now we're pretty much hooked.

The Amazing Race episode last night was one of the best ever. There are only 4 teams left and it was a race to the mat to avoid elimination for 3 of the teams. It was so suspenseful to see all 3 teams driving to the spot together, jump out of their cars, and run to the mat! Ray and Yolanda won last night I think for the first time -- they are peaking at the right time. BJ and Tyler lost the race to the mat but thankfully this leg of the race was a non-elimination round! BJ and Tyler are now our favorite team since Fran and Barry were eliminated. This leg was entirely in Australia and it was great to see the native people and the scenery of that beautiful country.

American Idol was disappointing last night since one of our favorites was eliminated -- Paris. She is a teenager full of personality and spunk and she is a fantastic singer and performer. Unfortunately, I heard that she never really drew in the national audience like some of the others. We don't really check out the Web sites and stuff (we're not that into it), but that's disappointing. Hopefully, some music label will pick Paris up and help her make a record. The American Idol tour this year will also give her the experience she needs to help propel her career. We'll miss her various hair-dos, outfits, and energy on the stage!

Monday, May 01, 2006

Kids Safety on the Web

An article in InformationWeek (dated today) gave the following tips to parents to help protect their kids online:
* No chat rooms, period.
* IM can only be with friends they know in person, not just in cyberspace.
* No sharing of full names, addresses, school names, cities, or phone numbers (even cell phones). There is probably more to add to this list -- comments?
* Talk to the kids about the reasons and dangers and help them understand that there is a balance between their privacy and your need to know what's going on. For help with the discussion, check out WiredSafety.org and NetSmartz.org (I have not personally check out these sites yet).
* Be careful about pictures posted to sites that could ID your child, be considered sexually appealing, or be embarrassing to anyone.
* Check to see if online profiles have a "privacy" setting that forces the owner to give permission before someone can view it.

I thought that this was interesting and I'll need this information in a few years. Any feedback (Care-bear or Linz?) or other thoughts even for adults on the Web (like me!)?